(A/N): Further down in the chapter, these, ~~~~~~~~~~~ , will signify a setting change from the Hex to the outside world
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2006 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
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"This is it. Game time."
"It's not a competition, Caelum."
"It is if you're a winner."
"Caelum!"
"Unleash hell, demon spawn!" Pietro yelled at the kids, laughing while walking along the street with his best friend.
"Do you remember when we were at the tower after that one mission when Rogers got shot and he gave us that long lecture about gun safety? What was the name of that speech he gave us? Like the 'Rules and Regulations of Rifles' or something?"
"You're testing me."
"No, I'm not."
"Hey, it's cool. I know I look different."
"Why do you? Look different."
"You tell me. I mean, if I found Shangri-La, I wouldn't wanna be reminded of the past either."
Caelum came running up to his mom and 'uncle', laughing with a bag full of candy, "Next house, Mom!"
"Junior entrepreneur, over here. How about you let Uncle P help you maximize your candy acquisition, huh?"
"Yeah. Kick-ass!"
Y/N laughed at the interaction between her kid and her friend, "I feel the need..."
"For speed!" Both Caelum and Pietro yelled together, "Kick-ass," yelled to the two as they ran along the sidewalk.
"Oh, hey, Herb," Y/N came walking up to her neighbor, "Oh, hey!"
"How's patrol going?"
"Eh, quiet, so far. Hold up, will you?" He asked as his radio went off, "Say again?"
"All the candy has disappeared?"
Y/N watched in the distance as the speedsters dumped all the candy into their bags and smashed jack-o'-lanterns and sprayed everyone with silly string, "And now all the jack-o'-lanterns have been smashed?"
Pietro, Caelum, and Malthe all cheered in the background at their victory of mischief, I mean, what could they say, their father was the God of Lies and Mischief.
"And now everyone's covered in silly string?" Herb looked terrified at what he was hearing, "Sorry, Y/N, I gotta bounce."
"Well, maybe Loki can help you out."
"Loki? Oh, he's not on duty."
"Oh! I... I thought he..."
"Is there something can do for you, Y/N? Do you want something changed?"
"No. It's fine. Never mind."
"All right. Peace!" Herb chuckles at his departure.
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"This is so lame. I can't believe you're making them return all the candy," Pietro whined, dragging his body through the street, pouting.
"I can't believe what a bad influence you are," Y/n scolded her friend, who immediately responded back, "Who beefed in your borscht? I'm just trying to do my part, okay? Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the snake, stir up trouble with the rugrats, and ultimately give you grief. I mean, that's what you wanted, isn't it?"
"What happened to your accent?" Y/N noticed, Pietro raised an eyebrow, "What happened to yours? Details are fuzzy, man. I got shot like a chump on the street for no reason at all and the next thing I know, I heard you calling me. I knew you needed me."
"Uncle P, guess what?", Caelum and Malthe ran up to the guardians.
"They've got full-size candy bars a few blocks up. Mom, can we go?"
"Next stop, Cavity Town!", Caelum yelled, excitedly, he ran around quickly, making his figure blur behind him.
"Right on, little dude! Chip off the old L/N block, you've got super-speed!"
"I do?"
"Yeah!"
"It's okay, baby, you can- You can take it slow, you can--" Caelum didn't stick around for his mother's next words, instead he ran off and came back in 3 seconds with four full sized candy bars, "If you're gonna break the sound barrier, please just take your brother with you."
"Really?!"
"Really?" The boys asked their mom with two different tones, one annoyed and one happy," Really! And please just remember to--"
"Don't go past Ellis Avenue."
"We know, Mom. We know."
"Hey! Be careful..."
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Present Day 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃
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The trio ran from the knocked out guards and into the Avengers tent, gasping for their breaths, "Hey... guys..." the team looked to Jimmy who was hunched over his knees panting, Jimmy held up a finger and took a few deep breaths, he stood back up and smiled over enthusiastically, "Okay..Hi! Mind if we hide out here for a while, we're kind of fugitives of Hayward and his little puppets," Jimmy asked.
"Jimmy. We are not fugitives, we just knocked out a few guards and ran away, no biggie," Monica said, sitting on a chair and grabbing a water.
"Awesome!"
"Rambeau!!" Steve yelled, while Shuri and Peter were amazed, "I- we mean, noooo, why would you do that, that was terrible! How could you!" Everyone rolled their eyes at Peter's overdramatic scene.
"Listen we just need to stay for a while to check on the Hex and such," Monica cleared up, the team muttered some 'yeses' while others just nodded, making room on the couches and chairs.
"Cool!" Darcy said, taking a bowl of popcorn from Peter.
"What happened to your accent?"
"What happened to yours? Details are fuzzy, man. I got shot like a chump on the street for no reason at all and the next thing I know, I heard you calling me. I knew you needed me."
"Woah, what happened?"
"Long lost best friend came to town," Tony said, with a mouthful of popcorn, "He brought the wrong face," Bucky whispered under his breath, but Wanda had already heard him, she started to cry and she summoned a knife and threw it at him, he quickly dodged it, but the knife went right into Thor's forearm.
"Oh look at that, I've been impaled," Thor laughed, "You know, it kind of reminds me of my brother...Loki... who is also.. dead," Thor slowed down noticing the words coming out of his mouth, he also began to cry.
The room was filled with the sobs of Thor and Wanda, who had somehow made their way over to each other and were now crying in each other's arms while the rest of the group watched with awkward expressions.
Tony held his fingers on the bridge of his nose, muttering things along the line of 'God, and these were the ones we put in charge of powerful energy?'
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2006 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
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Loki walk down a suburban street, observing the things around him and seeing that no one was moving, "Say, excuse me. Ma'am? Are those your children? Are you waiting for something?"
There was no response, so he moved on, walking and walking, seeing more and more people, frozen. He was going to stop, until he came upon a car, he moved to the window of the car and looked inside, seeing Agnes, "Agnes? What are you doing here?"
"Town Square Scare. Where is it?" She said with a blank expression, Oh, well, the Town Square. I expect," Loki chuckled lightly, "Took a wrong turn. Got lost," Agnes laughed emotionlessly, "In the town you grew up in?"
Loki didn't want to have to do this, but he placed a hand on Agnes's head, sending through the same spell he used on Norm, Agnes gasped loudly and started to panic, "It's alright," Loki told her, but then she started to freak out more, "You... You're one of the Avengers. You're Loki! Are you here to help us?"
"I am Loki. I do want to help. But what's an Avenger?"
"What? Why don't you know? Am I dead?" Agnes asked, her breath trembling with fear,
"No, no! Why would you think that?"
"Because you are."
"'Cause I'm what?"
"Dead. Dead," Agnes shouts, "Dead! Dead!"
"Agnes, it is my intention to reach those outside of Westview and make sense of our situation."
Agnes softened her expression, "How? No one leaves. Y/N won't even let us think about it. All is lost."
Agnes began to laugh loudly and maniacally, Loki tried to calm her but nothing was working, he decided to revert her back to her 'character' and spoke again, "I will fix this, Agnes. I promise."
"Okey-dokey, neighbor!" Agnes shouted in her normal cheery voice, she pulls her car around and the tires screech, she leaves Loki in the middle of the road, with only his thoughts to keep him company.
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Present Day 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃
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Monica stepped out of the tent to take a phone call, while Jimmy and Darcy stayed in watching the new episode, a few minutes later, Monica comes in the tent, "That's it. My way back into the Hex will be here in an hour. Just gotta meet my guy over the ridge. Let's roll."
"You can't do that," Bruce protested, but Tony didn't get the gist, "Sure she can. There are tons of cars out there they could hotwire," Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony then went back to talking to Monica, "No, I mean, you can't go back into the Hex."
"Worst case scenario, Y/N removes my free will and puts me in ultra-low-rise jeans."
"Agent, Hayward has your blood work. You've gone through the boundary twice already, Monica. The energy inside has re-written your cells on a molecular level twice. It's changing you," Bruce said, pulling up the stats on his computer, Monica walked over to look at the charts, "Seen enough lab results to last me a lifetime. Cells metastasizing, cells in remission. I know what Y/N's feeling and I won't stop until I help her."
Bruce sighed, knowing he wasn't going to win this argument no matter how hard he tired, the put his hand to his forehead and rubbed his forehead as a reaction to stress, "Okay, fine."
Monica smiled contently at her 'win', "Okay."
"But I'm staying here," Darcy said out of the blue, but Jimmy was quick to shut her plan down, "You can't stay here. It's not safe."
Monica gave a questioning look, "What? Darcy, what are you talkin' about?"
"I haven't made it through Hayward's last firewall. There's something big here. Something that can help us. I know it," Darcy said, typing into her computer, Darcy and the team wanted to see all of Hayward's data, even the data he wasn't sharing, so Darcy decided to...hack his networks.
"Fine. Fine. I'll drop you the location, you meet Jimmy and me out there as soon as you can."
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2006 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
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"Holy shmacaroni. Wow!" Pietro exclaimed, walking with Y/N into the Town Square, which was all decorated for the occasion.
"Isn't it great?" Y/N asked proudly, "Dammit, if Westview, New Jersey isn't charming as hell..." Pietro stated, looking around some more. The two stopped near the exit of the corn maze and sat on a hay bale.
"Now, I know that you think that I've have gone full soccer mom," Y/N started, "Yeah," Pietro agreed, to which Y/N punched him in the arm, acting offended, just like she did when they were younger, "But it really is nice, right?"
"Yeah."
Y/N sighs heavily before looking around at all the children playing and doing activities. Then Pietro speaks out of the blue, "I think Wanda, Nat and Bucky would love it."
Y/N smiled somberly, remembering the most recent interaction she had with them, but she thought back to her friends and the memories they had, trying not to shed any tears, "Yeah. I think they would have."
Children were laughing all around them, it made Y/N smile, she watched as two kids traded candy, other kids going through the maze, and families chatting and socializing.
"Where were you hiding these kids up 'till now?" Pietro's question made Y/N's smile drop, "What?"
"I assume they were sleeping peacefully in their beds. No need to traumatize beyond the occasional holiday episode cameo, right?"
"I-, no..."
"You were always the empathetic one."
"I don't... I didn't..."
"Don't get me wrong. You've handled the ethical considerations of this scenario as best you could. Families and couples stay together, most personalities aren't far off from what's underneath, people got better jobs, better haircuts, for sure."
"You don't think it's... wrong?"
"What, are you kidding? I'm impressed! Seriously. It's a big leap from giving people nightmares and shooting red wiggly-woos out of your hands. How'd you even do all this? Hey, I'm not some stranger and I'm not your husband. You can talk to me."
Pietro's reaction to the Hex wasn't like anyone else's, he didn't want it to stop, he didn't want to kill Y/N and he didn't argue about morals with her, it shocked Y/N but it was refreshing for someone to be proud of her.
Even though Pietro approved of the Hex, Y/N didn't want to face him right now, so she answered him facing away, "I don't know how I did it. I... I only remember feeling completely alone. Empty. I just... Endless nothingness," she turned to him and sniffled, but when she looked directly at him, she saw the real him.
Pietro was grey, lifeless, with bullet wounds all over his body, his eyes were glassed over with a soulless white, Y/N gasped loudly, and looked away, but when she looked back, Pietro was his 'normal' self again, full of color and in a silly Halloween costume.
"Are you okay?" Pietro asked his friend, noticing her panic and her gasp, "Um, yeah, I- I'm fine," she stuttered out her response, because in reality, she wasn't fine. Pietro was Y/N's closest friend when he was still alive, he was like the annoying older brother you never wanted, but got anyway. Although he was very annoying at times, she loved him like a brother and they even referred to each other as 'brother' or 'sister', they were able to bond over many things in their lives, like their Sokovian roots, their HYDRA backgrounds, their interests, but when he died right in front of Y/N, all of that was taken away.
She and Wanda both slipped into a deep depression, this was normal for them, Wanda lost all the family she had left, and Y/N lost the one person she considered family. Wanda and Y/N got closer over time, along with Bucky and Nat, but nothing was ever the same without Pietro. Seeing him revert back to the state he was in when Y/N lost him, sparked a lot of unwanted memories, like the times when she would cast illusions over her room so nobody suspected a thing, or when she would go days without eating or sleeping, or even the times when she would stand in his cold, empty room and read to the nothingness.
Y/N believed that her and Pietro were soulmates, twin flames. Two people, connected by one soul, not in the romantic kind of way, but in the platonic way. They'd promised they'd always be there for one another, but Pietro couldn't be there to support her when Y/N lost him. She hadn't found anyone in a long time, quite like Pietro until she met Loki, but he put the romantic aspects into his and Y/N's relationship, but he was gone now too.
She came back to 'reality' and looked at Pietro with a sad smile, but he didn't believe her when she said she was okay, so he nodded and responded with a, "Mhm.."
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Present Day 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃
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"Hayward, you sneaky bastard," Darcy said, observing the charts she had finally hacked into, she looked back at the radar with all the movements of the people of Westview on it, and saw that Loki was at the very edge of town, "Loki. What's he doing?"
She was startled by the grunts and screams from outside, then she heard Hayward's voice, "He really does want out, doesn't he?"
More grunting was heard and Darcy closed her laptop and ran out to see what was happening, She ran up and saw that Loki was trying to leave the Hex, but some sort of magic force was keeping him contained, the magic was dissolving him, looking like a much slower, more painful version of what happened when someone blipped.
Darcy saw the struggle and noticed that no one was helping him, she looked around and say only Hayward and his goons, 'Where were the Avengers', but she didn't have time to think, only act, "Hey! Why aren't you helping him?! Stop! He's coming apart!" She wanted to run and help him but a soldier yelled at her and grabbed her. She had to watch as he was fading away.
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Caelum and Malthe walked along the street until Malthe came to a stop, he bent over his knees in pain and held his head.
He really wants out doesn't he?
"Woah Malthe," Caelum looked at his brother in pain, who shushed him in return, but he just wanted to help, "Malthe, are you okay?"
Malthe couldn't answer, he was too focused on the voices and screaming in his head to pay attention to anything else, then Malthe recognized the screams, he ran to his mother who was close by, "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!"
Y/N jumped off the hay bale and ran over to him, "What? What is it, Malthe?"
"I hear Dad in my head. He's in trouble," Malthe hardly got the words out, he was shaking and breathing heavily.
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Loki was grunting and Darcy was fighting the guard who had her restrained, but he handcuffed her to a car, "Let me go! What are you doing?! Help him! Let me go!"
Loki called out, "Help!", he grunted and gasped, "The people need help!" Darcy gasped at what he had to say, it was weird that he of all people was asking for help, but she was more than willing to help if they just unlocked the damn cuffs.
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"I don't understand. What's happening to me?" Malthe was freaking out, and the panicked state of his mother was not very comforting.
"Where is he? Where's your dad?"
"Hey, don't sweat it, Y/N/N. It's not like your dead husband can die twice," Pietro tried to joke, which was not usually like him, Y/N sent him flying across town square with a flick of her wrist.
"Malthe, sweetheart, I need you to focus."
Shuddering at the images and sounds in his mind Malthe could hardly respond, "I can't tell. I see these..."
Loki grunts in pain in Malthe's mind.
"...soldiers."
It's heartbreaking for a parent to see a child go through pain, but in this case, it was breaking Malthe's heart to see and hear his father screaming in agony, "They think he's dying!"
Suddenly everything around them stops and Y/N's eyes glow a deep red, she's expanding the Hex.
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"Jimmy. Jimmy, do you see that? Something's happening! It's moving! Go, go!" Monica looked the rearview mirrors seeing red barriers move closer to them, Jimmy nods and hits the gas, speeding down the road, escaping as fast as he can.
Back at the SWORD camp, Hayward was gathering things and people, shoving them into cars and trying to get them out, "Go, go, go! Move, move, move!" The soldiers all get into vehicles and drive away, leaving Darcy and her car she is handcuffed to, to be swallowed by the Hex.
"Are you serious right now?!" Darcy yelled out into the rush of people, she's close to being engulfed by the magic forces, "Oh, fudge."
A magical red is washed over part of the camp, and the entire place is turned into a large circus, very happy and lively.
Hayward escaped, barely, he's yelling orders at soldiers in the car, "Can this car go any faster?!", he looked terrified, "God, do any of you know how to drive fast?!"
They get far enough away and the magic barrier stops, Haywards lets out a sigh of relief and immediately goes to his radio, "Come in. Anyone read me? Anyone hear my voice? Does anyone read me? Anyone read me? Over?"
Radio silence.
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Woah okay, this was a long chapter
We finally got some background on Pietro and Y/N's relationship, Yay! But it was kinda sad, whoops sorry.
What happened to the Avengers? Did they escape the clutches of the Hex and are just ignoring the director's calls, or were they swallowed by the magic?
I hoped you liked this chapter, it took a while to write lol